Kerry hurlers back in senior action

KERRY’S senior hurlers will compete again at Munster SHC level next season after a year’s absence.

However, they must first find a new senior and U21 manager for 2003.

County board chairman Sean Walsh said: “I would like to move as quickly as possible to appoint a senior hurling and U21 hurling manager. I want to meet as quickly as I can with the hurling clubs next Monday night and we would hope to put a management team together that night to be ratified by the full county board later.”

Mr Walsh also told a board meeting that Kerry plan to play at least two Allianz NFL games under floodlights at the Austin Stack Park next season.

Last weekend’s Kerry SFC clash between Laune Rangers and Dr Crokes had been changed because the clubs would not agree to play the game under lights. “We are disappointed that despite our lights, which stand up to any comparison, clubs don’t want to play under them, despite training with them beforehand,” said Walsh.

“Having spent 500,000 on the development of Austin Stack Park, including floodlights, I am looking to it being utilised more and I am proposing that from tonight onwards any match fixed under lights is a fixture.

“They are of sufficient quality that they make little or no difference and we gave every opportunity for clubs to come in and train under the lights beforehand. I think 7pm on a Sunday evening is a far more attractive fixture than 5pm on Saturday evening.”

Walsh added that it was planned to play inter-county games under lights next season.

The draws for the various championships next year have been revealed. In U21 hurling Kerry will face Clare, while in U21 football the Kingdom will meet Limerick. Kerry will also play Limerick in the first round of the Munster MHC, where there is a losers round so Kerry are certain of at least two games. The MFC will again be run on a round-robin basis.

Meanwhile, St Eunan’s, Letterkenny, are out of the Donegal SFC following an Ulster Council ruling Controversy arose five weeks ago when Ardara objected to St Eunan’s Sligo inter-county player Eddie Brennan, claiming he had made an illegal transfer. Ardara claimed that Brennan, who was supposed to be living in Letterkenny for the past three years, had used his home address in Sligo when getting a Croke Park sanction to play in the US last year. The Donegal county board initially rejected the Ardara objection, which led to the club appealing to the Ulster Council.

Elsewhere, Limerick have had to pay a heavy price for their three-in-a-row All-Ireland U21 hurling win over Galway. Croke Park has slapped a fine of 2,500 on the county board for incursions onto the Thurles pitch by the management during the game and for the substitutes having a puck-about during the interval. It was also claimed by headquarters that several of the Limerick players disobeyed guidelines by having their socks down. Though disappointed at the fine’s severity of the fine, board chairman Donal Fitzgibbon said it was a small price to pay for All-Ireland success.

Former Donegal boss Mickey Moran could be back in football management with Derry by the end of next week.

Derry PRO Gerry Donnelly admitted that “the feeling on the ground” is that Moran should get the job.

The funeral took place yesterday of Mike Kennedy, a member of the Sligo team that won an All-Ireland Junior Championship in 1935.

Kennedy, a native of Rathlee (a townland in West Sligo’s Easkey), was a grand-uncle of well-known Mayo footballer David Brady.